Arabic Content is King
“ Content is king” said by Sumner Redstone of Viacom, he said this quote in Boston university in 2007, but it was not famous until Google has used this quote describing the digital content. Since then most of the online platforms is looking for the king. Content is the essence of the Video On Demand ( VOD) platforms, that is why VODs always look for new strategies for content creation and looks for the content that will make them to be the kings in the online world.
VOD websites in the Arab world where mainly about the pirated websites till MBC Group — one of the leading TV groups in the Middle East- has recognized the importance of having an official VOD platform; thus, it initiated Shahid.net which is an Arabic VOD platform. MBC has launched this platform after they recognized the high demand over the top content (OTT) services, and after the significant rise in subscribers from the Middle East in Netflix which support the Arabic translation in their content. People in the Middle East spent long hours on the different media mediums. Based on Television’s business model: fit for a digital world report done by Deloitte, “ VOD and SVOD are much smaller at less than 1 per cent of the world SVOD market, but are growing much faster, compared to other markets,”. The report states as well,” IPTV players (i.e. telecom operators) and pay TV operators already offer SVOD services as an add-on to their overall service packages; thus, it is a complementary viewing service,”. Furthermore, the leaders in SVOD market are TV based platforms; such as, Shahid from MBC, Awan from Dubai TV, and Wavo from OSN. However, there are competitors which are digital natives in the region; like, Iceflix, Starzplay, and Istikana.
What was mentioned earlier is an overview about the market, but what about viewers demand and accessibility?Statistics in Arab Media Outlook 2016–2018 shows the time spent on online platforms as shown in graph 3
There are many forces that is driving viewers to go to the digital content because of the digital natives, high penetration of the internet, the connectivity through different devices, and affordability. As it evidently shown in graph 4, and based on Arab Media outlook, “ OTT spending at 98% (CAGR) over the next few years. In contrast, the growth is 4 to 5 times more than advanced countries in North America, and Western Europe,”. Despite of the huge appetite for the video in the region, few broadcasters who understood what the viewers wants to watch in their platforms. The most watched video content in United States is original exclusive content, and high quality one. Sherif Dahan, regional director
for OTT in the MEA at Vuclip, said at Khaleej Times,”The success of local SVOD platforms depends on their ability to invest in premium original Arabic content, and to offer the first window for international content,” this is an adaption for Netflix business strategy with content which most of VOD and SVOD platforms look potentially as a successful.
Most of these platforms in the region have the same content strategy, and here is one of the local examples which is shahid as it is the most viewed in the region. Shahid is a platform where they have their catch-up shows beside other content that they are acquiring just for the digital library. The Arabic content of Shahid are not digital originals; however, between all the Arabic VOD platforms, Shahid still have few exclusive content. Exclusivity in the Arab world is a dilemma, and when it comes to digital exclusive content it is much more complicated. So Shahid rely on the exclusive content that MBC channels have from TV series and post them in Shahid. Moreover, for the Arabic and international movies they got the exclusivity by having the authority of the first window in the platform for the SVOD interface.
Why we do not have exclusive Arabic content digitally? especially that in the last five years the Arabic productions are produced with high cinematic standards. In Dubai film festival, this question was the most argued one in Ramadan showcase 2018 conference where the leader producers in the region were attending. Sadek Sabbah the producer and distributor of Cedar Art Productions said,” as long as we have piracy issue in the region, we can not think of producing exclusive online content; maybe it is a future plan but we did not prepare for it yet,”. Piracy is a huge issue for the content in the region; there are many websites that have endless pirated Arabic and International content. This issue threaten all the official SVOD, and VOD platforms; especially, the one that have premium content. Whereas the law blocked some websites, but still everyday there are new websites initiated in the browser. Jamal Al Adl — Egyptian producer who owns Al Adl Group — answered,” we did not start yet to produce exclusive digital content because currently online is not profitable as our TV productions do,” he added, “ however we started it to adapt the shorter version of series as we produced two series of 13 and 11 episodes, but it is hard to apply this on all our productions as we still committed to TV strategies and advertisements slots.”
On the other hand, producers thought that online content is only about shortening the duration of content; whereas, studies show that the online content is not only about the duration. In KSA, viewership time regardless the length, lesser than 5 minutes, or longer than 10 minutes , remains at a steady place ( Arab Media Outlook 2016 -2018). Al Adl mentioned that, “ we are not partnering with any International SVOD platform because we are financially secure, we would do that if this step will open for us a new market.” However, Tareq Al Janayney — Egyptian producer — stated the opposite,” online series is not existing yet as we did not know yet how to be successful in this market, we are waiting the expertise to come to us and propose their ideas that we may accomplish,” he confirmed, “ web-series is soon coming to the region maybe in the next three years; especially that there is a reduction in TV series productions, in 2010 we had 72 TV series productions but 2017 only 28,”.
In Conclusion, the concept of exclusive digital content is not listed yet in the Arabic productions future plans. However, Netflix has announced that they are producing the first original middle east show for Adel Karam. This led us to many conclusions, but the first important one that till they realize that they have to produce exclusive digital content they might be late. Especially that the pioneer players in SVOD, start to realize this need in the market and they have already started to implement their plans in the region.
References List:
1- Aliouat, Abdulhani. Sharma, Abhijat. Al Theeb, Alia. “Arab Media Outlook 2016–2018”. Dubai Media City & Dubai Press Club, 5th Edition.
<http://dubaistudiocity.ae/uploads/AMO-Eng.pdf>
2- D’Mello, Sandhya. “ You Still Watch TV? Get Video-on-Demand.” Khaleej Times, 14th May 2017, Web.
<https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/local/you-still-watch-tv-get-video-on-demand>
3- Saguto, Santino. Durou, Emmanuel. Pereira, Gareth. “Television’s Business Model Fit for a Digital World: Middle East Perspective”. Deloitte, 2015.
4- Al Adl, Jamal. Ramadan Showcase 2018, 9th Dec 2017, Dubai Film Festival 2017.
5- Al Janayney, Tareq. Ramadan Showcase 2018, 9th Dec 2017, Dubai Film Festival 2017.
6- Sabbah, Sadek. Ramadan Showcase 2018, 9th Dec 2017, Dubai Film Festival 2017.